1. Continuing the reflection on the
gifts of the Holy Spirit, today let us consider the gift of Counsel. It is
given to the Christian to enlighten the conscience in moral choices which
daily life presents.

A need that is keenly felt in our
days, disturbed by not a few crises and by a widespread uncertainty about true
values, if that which is called "reconstructing consciences". That
is to say, one is aware of the necessity of neutralizing certain destructive
factors which easily find their way into the human spirit when it is agitated
by passions, and of introducing healthy positive elements into it.

In this commitment to moral
restoration the Church must be, and is, in the forefront; hence the prayer
that arise: from the hearts of her members - of all of us - to obtain
especially the help of light from on high. The Spirit of God responds to this
plea through the gift of Counsel, by which he enriches and perfects the virtue
of prudence and guides the soul from within, enlightening it about what to do,
especially when it is a matter of important choices (for example, of
responding to a vocation), or about a path to be followed among difficulties
and obstacles. Infact experience confirms that "the deliberations of
mortals are timid, and unsure are our plans", as the Book of Wisdom says
(9:14).

2. The gift of Counsel acts like a
new breath in the conscience, suggesting to it what is licit, what is
becoming, what is more fitting for the soul (cf. St Bonaventure,
"Collationes de septem donis Spiritus Sancti", VII, 5). Thus the
conscience becomes like the "healthy eye" of which the Gospel speaks
(Mt 6:21), an eye which acquires, as it were, a new pupil, by means of
which it is able to see better what to do in a given situation, no matter how
intricate and difficult. Aided by this gift, the Christian penetrates the true
meaning of gospel values, in particular those expressed in the Sermon on the
Mount (cf. Mt 5:7).

Let us therefore ask for the gift of
Counsel! Let us ask for it for ourselves and, in particular, for the pastors
of the Church, so often called, by the demands of their work, to make arduous
and agonizing decisions.

Let us ask for it through the
intercession of her who, in the litany, is greeted as "Mater Boni
Consilii", Mother of Good Counsel.